Rouge and Sonic 2
by SamberFire
Summary: Dr. Eggman is out for revenge. he boards his Egg Ballon and heads out aiming to cause nothing but destruction. In Eggman's rage, he also creates an even bigger threat. Rouge and Sonic must team up to destroy Eggman's new creation.
1. Chapter 1

"Humph." Grumbled Eggman as he stared down at the body of Eggman Nega on the rocky floor. "I will make you all pay for this." The mad doctor growled hatefully. He grumbled again at the faint pain in his body as he climbed into his surprisingly intact, trusty Egg Mobile, dragging Eggman Nega inside with him. Eggman flew for at least two days, over desert, hills, beach, ocean, ice plains, before eventually reaching another one of his bases hidden in the icy mountains. Once inside, Eggman put Eggman Nega in a restoration chamber. "Finally! Now," he said, walking over to the activation lever. "I'll take care of you now." He pulled it to 'on' and left to work on building more robots.


	2. Chapter 2

After several months of nursing to make sure he was in top condition, Eggman Nega was finally healed. "Just as I calculated." Eggman laughed. "Now, allow me to introduce you to my latest creation." He laughed, walking over to a chalk board. "Don't think this will be like last time." Then, he and Nega left in his Egg Balloon, leaving Eggman's new creation resting. What Eggman didn't know was when the new creature would wake up…


	3. Chapter 3

as it happened, Eggman's creation woke up just after he left. Just his bad luck. The creature was purple in fur colour and had large rounded bat ears, yet a hedgehog's face and quills with white tips, as well as a white marking on its forehead, similar to the red marking on Shadow's top quill and pale white skin, like that of an albino. Its irises were green, but its eyes were red. It had two small white tipped quills on its back, and between them, a patch of white fur, the markings from which extended like flames to its sides. It didn't appear to have a nose or a mouth and its fingers looked more like claws. It had a moderately long, bushy, white tipped tail and another patch of white fur on its chest, similar to that of Shadow. It also wore purple and black gloves and a pair of black and white sneakers. The creature stretched. Engraved into its white chest fur was a circular red gem. This creature seemed already aware of the power it possessed, which made it all the more unfortunate for Eggman having left him behind.

"I am forever." The creature said in a deep gravely tone that made it obvious it had never spoken before. "I am… invincible." Then, the creature began to laugh, which sounded more like a horse cough. Blissfully unaware, Eggman and Eggman Nega headed through a portal to find Sonic and Rouge. In a beautiful beachside town, Rouge, Omega, Cream, Cheese and Vanilla were relaxing in the hot summer sun on a bench at the park. There were multiple other mobians around and Rouge had just finished getting a drink from a water fountain.

"Phew. Wow." She exclaimed at the hot sun. Just then, a shadow covered the ground and the bat looked up to see Eggman's Egg Balloon.

"Meet me at the location I will specify by four o'clock today. Failure to do so on time will result in my levelling of this city." Eggman declared through a megaphone.

"No." Rouge blatantly yelled back at him.

"By refusing to negotiate with me, you have forced me to take drastic action." Eggman replied before starting to drop bombs.

"Uh oh." Rouge was about to do something but an exploding bomb knocked her back. Rouge, now angered, got to her feet, extending her wings and flapped up to meet Eggman.

"My, aren't we impatient." Eggman mocked when she arrived. "if you had cooperated with me earlier, I wouldn't have had to do this."


	4. Chapter 4

Right on cue, Eggman Nega appeared, punching and kicking the bat. Rouge dodged both strikes effortlessly. Then Eggman Nega lashed out with a punch and poorly timed roundhouse kick before attempting a crash tackle, all of which were easily avoided by Rouge's quick and nimble frame.


	5. Chapter 5

Then, he simply pulled a cannon from behind him and just simply shot at her. Rouge was able to dodge this shot too and the projectile put a large hole in the Egg Balloon, causing it to swerve out of control and crash into an offshore runway while Eggman yelled "noooo!"

Rouge groaned at the high pitched mechanical noises and opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by red Eggman robots. The bat got to her feet grumbling, not really in the mood for this, when all of a sudden, the sky seemed to fall around them and start slowly rotating, getting darker with each revolution. Rouge thought she must be hallucinating when a familiar voice told her otherwise.

"My, that was a pretty snazzy performance there." Rouge whipped around to see a familiar blue hedgehog atop the wrecked Egg Balloon. The bat stared in disbelief, unsure if she was still hallucinating. "Well come on. It's now or never!" said Sonic, jumping off the wrecked vehicle and launching into a spindash, destroying all four robots surrounding Rouge in a single ricochet blast.

"What…? Sonic…?" Rouge was generally surprised by the hedgehog's appearance.

"Yep, it's Sonic." The hedgehog replied. One of his quills tensed rather suddenly, giving him a sharp prick and Sonic spun around.

"Hey! Cut it out!" yelled Tails right before Eggman Nega won the tug of war game they were playing with Tails' radar, ripping it from the fox's hands and causing him to fall on his face. Then, Nega climbed up a stack of boxes onto a building and jumped into Eggman's Egg Mobile that had survived the crash. The two flew back through the portal.

"Tails!" Sonic trotted over (well, it was a trot by his standards)

"Aww…" the fox whimpered sadly, pulling his front half off the floor.

"Are you ok?" Sonic asked, offering him his hand.

"Umm… yeah." The fox took it and helped himself up. Rouge ran past the two to the edge.

"What have I done?" she asked herself, looking at the flaming town. "…that horrible Eggman…"


	6. Chapter 6

the trio hitched a ride back over to the mainland on a nearby boat. The town was in ruins.

"Eggman's got some nerve." Sonic commented almost angrily.

"Rouge." It was E - 123 Omega.

"Sorry I caused this, Omega." The bat told the robot.

"You don't have to be sorry for anything." The robot replied. "We are just glad you survived the crash."

"What should we do?" Tails asked Sonic.

"hey." He said to Omega and the crew. "How about you give us a hand?"

"We would be delighted." Omega replied in his robot voice.

"sweet." Said Sonic with a thumbs up. Then the seven went to take Vanilla, Cream and Cheese home. There were nearly there and the three were about to walk on alone when Sonic froze, drawing in a sharp breath, looking up to see Metal Sonic appear from nowhere, jumping down in front of Vanilla, Cream and Cheese and causing all three to fall back. Tails, Sonic, Rouge and Omega all made strangled gasps at the sudden appearance of him. "Whoa. That was sudden." Sonic commented to the robot. Vanilla, Cream and Cheese crawled away and to the side of him. Rouge didn't hesitate, launching herself with her wings she flew past him, grabbing his right arm. Omega launched himself at him, colliding with the robot's head and dragging him to the floor, allowing Sonic to land a direct spindash to Metal's tummy and Rouge followed suit shortly after. The three regrouped but then Metal Sonic got up and unleashed a deadly ring spark field, knocking them back. Sparks flew through E - 123 Omega's circuits.

"Ow…" muttered Rouge looking up from her position lying on the floor. Sonic was still sitting up, arms crossed firmly around his chest as his breath came in ragged sobs, but he still glared hatefully at Metal Sonic. Around one corner of Vanilla's house came Espio the Chameleon, out for a stroll. He saw the commotion with Metal Sonic and went to see if Vanilla and Cream needed any help. Tails came flying in suddenly with a box full of rings, dropping it on Metal Sonic's head. The box slammed painfully into the robot, smashing and dropping rings all over the ground. Sonic saw and reached for one of the rings closer to him. Still panting a little, Sonic flicked the ring into the air experimentally before catching it and crushing it in his hand. Sparks flew from the ring and energy coursed through Sonic's body, the pain Metal Sonic's attack had previously caused him vanishing without a trace. Getting to his feet, sonic spindashed right into Metal Sonic's head, knocking him to the ground. Rouge managed to get her hands on a couple of rings to help her and omega and the two grabbed Metal by his legs, throwing him into a nearby stream.


	7. Chapter 7

"humph. No problem." Sonic huffed. Meanwhile, Espio was having a standoff with a red Eggman robot, Vanilla, Cream and Cheese hiding in some grass behind him. Well, at least until Sonic appeared and spindashed through the robot. "Hey there." He said, getting up.

"Hey Espio." Rouge added. Espio stood back up in a relaxed position.

"Hmm. Hey." Vanilla retrieved the remaining three rings and headed inside with Cream and Cheese. Then, Rouge grabbed Sonic and Tails and they began to fly towards Tail's workshop, Omega and Espio close behind them.

Eggman and Eggman Nega got back to the base, only to find Eggman's new creation was gone.

"Huh?" Eggman raised his eye brows, confused.

"Looking for me?" replied his creation, who was hovering in mid-air.

"Huh?!" Eggman's confusion grew even more at his hostility. The creature just laughed. It sounded better than last time. "You're… awake?!"

"I can tell you'll be nothing but a nuisance." The creature said menacingly. Eggman hated the thought of having to destroy his new creation, but it seemed like that was what was going to have to happen.

"Very well." He said, pulling out a robot blaster. "I'll take care of you myself." He shot his creation. But then, the creature dodged to the side and another one appeared, this one flickered with pinkie red squares that seemed to almost resemble code fragments. "What?!" Eggman exclaimed watching. He knew the gem the creature held could create illusions but make them look realistic to an extent? That HAD to be next level.

"It doesn't matter how many of them you defeat you know…" the creature said in what he would classify as an 'even' tone. As he spoke, the clones began to multiply until there were 15 versions of the creature in the room, including the real one himself.

"It's no use, pull back!" Eggman yelled and turned tail, running from the room. Nega followed quickly behind him as his ancestor dashed through the halls screaming 'pull back'. The creature laughed and chased after them through the air until they got outside and Eggman and Eggman Nega flew away in the Egg mobile. "It won't take much for me to deal with you…" the creature said after them and went back into the base to search back through the info he'd found about the world and takeover recounts.


	8. Chapter 8

"Something seems wrong with this forest." E – 123 Omega said.

"Nah, you just need to switch your night light on." Said Sonic casually, beginning to walk off into the dark without a second thought.

"…I mean, I can understand he needs his sleep, but that forest kind of freaks me out." said Tails.

"well." Began Rouge, striking a pose that made it look like she was leaning on Tails. "It sounds like he needs to learn the definition of a 'sleep in'." straightening up, she began striding into the forest after Sonic. "I wouldn't mark myself as a teacher, but I reckon I could find the time to teach him." she paused and smiled to herself. "I reckon I could find a LOT of time for that." The bat said in a whisper. Omega, Tails and Espio looked at one another, clearly confused by Rouge's random speech about her teaching qualities and headed into the forest after them.

E – 123 Omega had been walking in front of the group for a while but now he halted everyone.

"Something is not right. I will go on ahead." He said in his robotic voice before disappearing beyond the tree line. Rouge wandered over and leant against Sonic, readjusting one glove that clearly didn't need to be readjusted and admiring the pink cuff.

"so." She began. "I hear that…" she was suddenly interrupted by a loud mechanical banging noise. Immediately after, Omega burst through the tree line being chased by King Boom Boo. Omega then clumsily tripped over a tree root and went sprawling in front of the gang while the ghost hovered overhead, laughing merrily. "Well. There goes my attempt at making casual conversation." Said Rouge decidedly, getting back to her feet. King Boom Boo then turned invisible.

"Well I guess… that was that?" said Sonic hopefully. But then he felt something all too familiar. "nope." He said decidedly, whirling around to spot a red and orange eyed Boo appearing behind them. The others turned as well. Just in time to miss the second Boo appearing behind them. Omega and Tails were at the back of the group, so it decided it would attack them first. Luckily, Omega's radar picked it up and he grabbed Tails, jumping to one side and rolling out of its way. Sonic growled, he'd had enough of the night already and didn't want any more delays. He stroked one of his spines so they'd stop tickling and dashed forward, leaping up at the ghost. The Boo threw him to the side.


	9. Chapter 9

The Boo was then hit by a three foot ninja star thrown by Espio. The Boo cut off its giggling and stared at him and Rouge for a second before charging. Rouge grabbed Espio and flapped up into the air out of the ghost's way. Meanwhile, Tails was flying up above the Boo that had attacked him and Omega to attract its attention. While it was distracted, Omega hit the ghost with a shot from his cannon. Rouge and Espio stood next to one another defensively as the Boo they were fighting stared them down. Then, it picked up a large rock and threw it at them. Before either of them could do anything, Sonic came rushing past them with a spindash, colliding with the rock feet first and pushing off it with so much power, it changed direction and hit the Boo, which then evaporated. Sonic grinned, hitting the ground perfectly and sliding next to Espio and Rouge.

"About time you did something." Rouge said, scratching one of her ears.

"I guess I was asleep." Sonic shrugged. Espio then ran over and crash tackled Omega to avoid an attack from the Boo he and Tails had been fighting. Consequently, the Boo flew right into Rouge's secret kick move and was flung into the air. Omega quickly got to his feet and didn't hesitate to fire now he had a clear shot. With a direct hit, the ghost evaporated. King Boom Boo reappeared. Everyone regrouped into a line. "I'd go back to bed." Sonic warned him. The ghost took his advice, turning and running off into the forest.


	10. Chapter 10

Shadow had just finished giving some new G.U.N. recruits a course demonstration and hopped on the Dark Rider, rebuilt and given to him by G.U.N. after he joined their cause. The hedgehog drove the bike up into the mountains, a track he actually enjoyed, but would probably never admit it. He'd been cruising for a while when he came upon a small party of mobians on the road. Shadow swerved to a stop in front of them and tilted the bike towards them, stabilizing it with his foot.

"Alright faker, why are you standing in the middle of the road?" he said as he recognised the mobians. Then his eyes widened fractionally as he noticed his comrades. "Hi Rouge. Omega." He added in a bid to correct his tone towards Sonic. Sonic and Rouge exchanged a quick look.

"You know what Eggman's been up to lately?" Sonic asked casually.

"Hmm…." Shadow murmured deeply, tilting his head skyward as he gazed at a tall rock formation near the road before closing his eyes as if trying to reawaken some deep memory he'd stored away somewhere. After a moment or two he turned back to Sonic. "I seem to recall seeing him a while back; he was searching for any chaos emerald he could find and taking them back to his base in the icy mountains."

"Well, let's get going!" Sonic replied. Shadow sighed internally and got off his motorbike, taking the purple emerald which he'd been keeping for the past few months. Sonic handed him the red emerald he'd been carrying around with him as well.

"Chaos control!" Shadow yelled, teleporting everyone. They arrived right outside Eggman's base in the icy mountains. "Now why, for an Eggman base, is it so quiet?" Shadow asked mostly himself. They headed inside and after walking through long halls, came upon a room filled with destroyed badniks, strewn about carelessly. Shadow crouched to examine a Buzz Bomber and Omega walked over to a blue robot that looked as if it was meant to be a copy of Eggman to scan it. Sonic looked around the room and instantly his eyes fell on five rocks carelessly scattered on the floor.

"Look at the chaos emeralds!" he exclaimed. The rocks on the floor were in fact, five of the mystical gems that were once so alight with chaos energy.

"This is terrible!" exclaimed Tails who was at Eggman's computer.

"What's wrong buddy?" Sonic asked, coming over. Rouge joined them. Tails replayed the security footage he'd just been watching.

"I can tell you'll be nothing but a nuisance." The creature said menacingly.

"What the?" Shadow stood up. "What is that?"

"What?" it was a new voice, gruff and harsh. "Who are you?" everyone turned to see the creature that had been on the security footage floating into one corner of the room. He looked everyone over with his green yellow eyes. "Ah yes, I've read about all of you. Truly a shame that you wish to go against me. With the power from the chaos emeralds and this…" he looked at the gem cut into his chest. "Phantom Ruby, I am the true ultimate lifeform!"

"So, the big boss finally shows himself." Sonic folded his arms.

"I was expecting you sooner." The creature mused, completely ignoring Sonic's statement. "As you must know, you're already too late." And with a wave of his hand he created several clones of himself, flickering with the pinkie red coding squares. Then, with a laugh, he flew down the hall behind them out of the base.

"Damn, he got away." Sonic and Rouge turned around. "Leave him to me, I'll chase him down." Sonic said, running down the hall. Rouge followed as best she could.

"Chaos…. What?" somehow the emerald was ripped from Shadow's hand before he could do anything with it. "Damn, I suppose I'll have to use Chaos Spear instead."

"Let us teach this world a lesson." Said the creature lowly, taking hold of the purple emerald and draining the chaos energy from it before discarding it. Rouge made a deep noise of distaste which was unusual for her before extending her wings and flying at the creature. Eggman's creation grabbed her and flung her to the snowy ground. Sonic grunted angrily.

"You're over." He declared, charging forward. Rouge got up to assist him. The creature looked to both of them before impaling the two of them on beams of chaos energy and letting them drop dead.

"I hate a mess. But I don't like loose ends either." The creature muttered, watching the snow underneath them turn red. Then, he grabbed the red emerald from Sonic's body and drained the energy from it too. "Finally, I have all of them." Then the gem carved into the creature's chest glowed brightly and Dark Gaia appeared, flickering with pinkie red code squares. The creature laughed. "Witness my ultimate illusion!"

Vanilla was at home when she heard a knock on the door. When she answered it though, there was no one there. Vanilla looked down and saw a red glowing orange crystal. Thinking maybe it was important, the rabbit picked it up to hold onto it. Instantly, her vision went white.

Back at the burnt out Death Egg crash site, Blaze finally opened her eyes. Knuckles was busy guarding the master emerald when all of a sudden, the area around him started to white out.

"What? What the?" was all he could say before everything turned white. The same thing happened to Cream and Amy, Eggman and Eggman Nega.


	11. Chapter 11

Out somewhere in space, everyone reappeared on a floating pillar. "Is this because of that light?" asked Knuckles to everyone who was listening, which wasn't really anyone.

"What is this?" asked Tails.

"It seems we've been teleported to another location." Shadow answered him.

"What's going on?" asked Amy confused at the answer.

"Where are we?" Tails stared around. He couldn't quite see but it seemed that the night sky around them was flickering with pinkie red squares. Then, his eyes fell on something that made his heart stop. "No… you don't think…." Tails stared at what was in front of them, refusing to believe what he saw. "…Sonic…?"

"Rouge?" Vanilla stared as well.

"Sonic?!" Amy's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Rouge?" Cream tilted her head unsure of what was going on. Espio stared.

"Damn… not here…" whispered Shadow.

"Rouge?" E -123 Omega said, trying to scan them for life.

"Sonic…!" Knuckles stared hard.

"It seems we were all caught in the empty space distortion." Said a new voice. Everyone turned. Eggman. He shook his head "that experiment creation of mine played us all for fools. With the chaos emeralds, the imperfect powers of the ruby are effectively nullified and with this empty space, everything will cease to exist in an inescapable… well, nothing. It will start chewing up our world soon."

"What… what do we do?" Tails half asked, half exclaimed. His ear twitched. "Huh?" turning around, he saw Blaze standing there. "Blaze?" then, the cat flashed, her ponytail disappeared, and her eyes turned red and her fur turned black. Her shoes resembled Sonic's and the furry cuffs on her gloves and socks were gone. If this cat wore clothes, they were black. "You're not Blaze! Who are you?" Tails asked. The cat didn't reply, instead walking over to Eggman. It stared at him hatefully, and then snatched Tails' radar from Eggman's pocket. The cat passed it back to Tails then walked over to Sonic and Rouge and examined their bodies. Then, it pulled out three fire crystals from what looked to be a pocket, taking one and crushing it in its hand. It laid a second on Sonic's body and arranged the dull chaos emeralds in a circle, placing the third fire crystal in the middle. Then it looked at Tails and pointed at the chaos emeralds. Tails tilted his head confused, then seemed to catch the cat's wavelength and fired an energy beam at the fire crystal. The green beam hit the crystal and spread in an anticlockwise circle to all the emeralds, restoring their chaos energy. Then, the cat walked over to Vanilla and held out its hand. Vanilla was confused at first, but then remembered the glowing red crystal. The rabbit gave it to the cat and the cat took it from her, gathering up the chaos emeralds and putting them around Rouge, laying the red glowing crystal on the bat's body in the centre of the emeralds. The cat proceeded to then crouch down by Sonic, placing a hand over the fire crystal resting on the hedgehog's body. An orange aroura appeared around the both of them and with a flash of light, the cat vanished.

"Huh?" Sonic opened his eyes and stood up. He looked at himself briefly before over at Rouge. Upon seeing the bat's body, his eyes softened and he extended his hand out, as if issuing some sort of mental command. The crystal, Rouge's body, and the chaos emeralds all rose into the air. Chaos energy shot from the emeralds onto the crystal and Rouge's body was enveloped in light. After a few seconds, the bat dropped onto her feet and shook her head.

"You… you saved me!" she said to Sonic. The hedgehog smiled lovingly then flicked two of his fingers. The chaos emeralds zipped over and began to orbit around him. There was an explosion of chaos energy and suddenly Sonic was Super Sonic.

"Hey!" Knuckles cheered happily.

"Rouge!" Omega attempted to sound happy with his robot voice. Tails laughed.

"Sonic!" Amy was over the moon. Super Sonic looked to Rouge and extended his hand. Rouge took it and the two of them flew up, up, up until they reached a glowing white portal. Tails laughed lovingly watching them.

"Alright!" Knuckles was still cheering.

"I'm trusting you to do this!" Eggman yelled after them. Dark Gaia roared at Super Sonic in anger.

"Let's see how long you can keep up that big attitude." Super Sonic said in response, although unsure where that came from. "ok." He flew towards the monster. Rouge found Eggman's former creation and flew after him.

"It seems I underestimated you." He said half to her, half to himself. Then, he created a ball of red and black squares and threw it at Rouge. The bat dodged effortlessly. Super Sonic watched fondly for a second before turning his attention back to Dark Gaia and zipping past before the flickering monster could hit him with its hand. Super Sonic landed a perfect Super Sonic Boost into its shoulder. Dark Gaia flickered like a TV with a bad signal.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'll make sure you regret this." Eggman's creature growled at Rouge as she flew after him. The creature summoned more red and black squares and threw all of them at Rouge in an unavoidable storm. The bat dodged as best she could but eventually a stray cube hit her. Rouge fell from the air and went sprawling along what seemed to resemble a metal highway. Shaking her head, the bat looked up to see the whole area had turned red. The creature was forming an attack up ahead. The bat struggled to her feet, she had to get back in the air before…. Suddenly a mini fireball hit the creature in the head, almost knocking him out of the sky. The creature growled in frustration and turned to his attacker.

"Heh, heh." Super Sonic saluted him and flew back to Dark Gaia.

" _Funny."_ Rouge thought. " _I don't remember Super Sonic being able to shoot fire."_ Rouge jumped back into the air and flew after the creature. Super Sonic launched into another Super Sonic Boost, ripping through a spot just under one of its eyes. Dark Gaia roared, flickering some more and flailed one of its arms, striking Super Sonic and sending him flying off course. Rouge was determined to do something for herself so she got an extra boost of speed out of her wings and managed to hit Eggman's creature a blow to the head with her Rouge Kick. Super Sonic was still having a bit of trouble, he was coming at Dark Gaia at an awkward angle now and as a result, the monster managed to hit him again. Super Sonic growled in frustration, back flipping for a readjustment and managed to land a direct hit on one of Dark Gaia's eyes. Dark Gaia roared again, flickering like a TV that had lost its signal. Rouge back flipped to save the aerial speed and momentum from her previous kick and slammed right into the creature, attempting to drag it to the ground. She almost succeeded but the creature threw her off at the last second. Super Sonic had had enough and boosted straight through Dark Gaia's main eye. The monster roared in pain and flickered like a broken TV before vanishing. Super Sonic smiled and fired a last mini fireball at Eggman's creature. The ball sprang from his palm and hit the creature in the head, knocking it out of the air. Red lightning began to flicker around it and Super Sonic quickly dived towards the metal highway, grabbing a dazed Rouge from the floor and making his way to a white portal in the sky.

On the platform in space, there was another bright light and everyone was returned to the planet. Everyone celebrated, but Omega, Tails and Amy stayed away from the partying mobians behind them (well, except for Shadow) awaiting Super Sonic and Rouge's return.

"You were a big help." Super Sonic told Rouge who was now flying beside him through white space.

"Well thanks, but I kind of wish I could've done more… say, maybe I can do more when we get back?" Rouge glided closer to him.

"What do you mean?" Super Sonic looked over at her slightly.

"It just so happens, that I know a great Chilli dog joint." Rouge said, flying on her side now as if to show off. Super Sonic looked ahead again, thinking for a second.

"Perhaps another time." Rouge blinked, genuinely surprised.

"You turn down Chilli dogs? Now that's a first." Super Sonic grinned.

"I was kidding!" Rouge laughed.

"I know you too well."

"We should be getting back." Super Sonic sped up.

"Don't even bother to say 'race ya.'" Rouge said, speeding after him.

"You weren't kidding about that place." Sonic said as he and Rouge wandered through the park.

"I know, right? No, wait, don't answer that – I'm always right." Replied Rouge cockily.

"We should do that again." said Sonic.

"Next week?" Rouge suggested.

"Deal." Sonic replied.

"Ok, see ya next time."

"Right back at ya." Sonic said, speeding away. Rouge waved goodbye and smiled. Under a nearby tree, Charmy Bee woke up.


	13. Epilogue

Sonic stood alone on a cliff and sighed. He checked to make sure no one was watching. Then, the black cat walked out of the hedgehog's body. Sonic's empty shell stood there, staring dead ahead blankly as he slowly turned transparent. Then, all at once, he blinked and almost seemed like he remembered he was alive.

"What? Where am I? What happened? How'd I get here?" he looked around panicked. "And why am I fading?!"

"Because, you're dead." The cat replied.

"I'm what?! How did that happen?"

"It doesn't matter." The cat took a fire crystal from its pocket and pressed it against the faded hedgehog's chest. Sonic winced as a burning sensation spread through his body, then he saw that slowly, he was becoming a physical object again. "I'm going to erase everything that has happened thus far from the memory of all involved parties. No one will remember you died, Eggman will never have built the creation that killed you… unfortunately that means I will have to give him back the object he used to build it, but I can make the involved parties think everything that happened was a dream. Of course I will have to drastically change the events from dream to dream to avoid suspicion, and this encounter will have to be changed too. Just remember what you have done these past few hours, and what you have planned next week." The cat put its paw over the fire crystal that was now embedded in the hedgehog's chest. "I must go now, but know this." The cat leaned in close to whisper to him. "I'll be back for you… I promise." Then, it stepped back and walked away. Sonic watched and as soon as it disappeared, he'd forgotten what the conversation had really been about. The hedgehog stroked the crystal cut into his chest.

"Nothing like a present from an adoring fan. Good thing that one wasn't another Amy." He rolled his eyes.


End file.
